1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt: “Dance” with no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

OK, are you ready? Please give me your best five minutes on:::

Dance…

:

GO

I two step through the dark, through the tired. These rock ‘n roll toes. They have mojo when it comes to cradling babies back to sleep. Softly back and forth to the rocker’s creak I wing it. I just go with it. I learn with each new baby and my moves get better.

Slow and fast and slow and gently rub the nape of the neck where new hair curls ever so softly.

All that baby breath can get me lost in the rhythm of motherhood. The sway and the shuffle and the ball change between building blocks and Tonka trucks and my goodness but legos can cut an imprint into a bare foot.

Some nights I wail with the music. The baby out loud and me in my mind. I don’t think I can take it. Life without movies and staying up till 2 am to read instead of to comfort someone who has no end for tears in sight.

This beauty. This beast. This wild symphony that screams with delight at a patch of ants.

They lead and I follow and my clumsy feet get better at keeping time.

One hour, one nap, one first, one step, one word, one grade more. May there always be music.

40 Comments

Yep, this is so true. With each baby, I learn a new dance. With the first, I dance skips and twirls and happy giggles. With the second, I dance long slow nights of gentle swaying, waiting for sleep to come. With the third, I dance in leaps and lunges, trying to catch up with the monkey who can climb the walls. Every dance unique to each. I’m pretty sure that’s how our Father’s sees His dance with each of us. Unique.

‘They lead and I follow and my clumsy feet get better at keeping time’.

So much of motherhood is summed up in this sentence – I love it. Have been thinking a lot about what it means to let the child lead – and the fact that so quickly the music changes and you find yourself suddenly out of step and having to adapt to the new rhythm.

This is my first time participating in Five Minute Friday, and it was challenging but wonderful to have a set beginning and end on my writing time this morning.

I can only hope to write as beautifully as you over time. “I learn with each new baby and my moves get better.” This line resonated with me this morning as I attempt to tuck the worry about being a mom of 2 in just a few weeks away. I’d much prefer to think of my moves getting better, rather than thinking I don’t have the moves!

Thank you for your encouragement both in this prompt and in your writing.

Lisa-Jo
on June 29, 2012 at 9:27 am

Hey there Katie –

Welcome – so glad you linked up with us today! And believe it or no – there’s so much about the second baby that’s easier. Blessings on you in the last few weeks!

Hmmmm…our first, put me on bedrest at 28 weeks….after he was born early, we were blessed with three months of colic that brought me to my knees……the wailing, I remember it well….now, his slumber is sweet and his eyes almost look directly into mine as he stretches…and then, the two who followed….those sweet baby cries seem so loud when they are small…..when they are big, the tears are different, the heart feels true heart hurt and this mama…..hmmmm….still learning tries to dance with grace…I only get it somewhat right, when I leave the dance to him!

Love this post. I remember the first trip I took to the grocery store after my son was born. My husband stayed home to watch him. As I stood in the check out line waiting…I caught myself doing the back and forth baby sway! That dance becomes a part of you!

Lisa-Jo
on June 29, 2012 at 9:28 am

Oh I know! There are so many days I catch myself rocking back and forth in a chair for no good reason than it seems to have become an unconscious movement :)

Eileen you are so right. It does become a part of you. My girlies are 13, 10, and almost 4 and I still catch myself standing somewhere gently swaying back and forth. I think maybe I get lost in a memory and don’t even realize that I’m doing it.

I’ve visited several that linked up this morning and just want to say what a blessing it is to me to read the unique ways in which God speaks to his people with a one word prompt. It’s a beautiful picture of the body of Christ here. Thanks Lisa-Jo.

Nancy
on June 29, 2012 at 9:58 am

DANCE
Dance – the words its self cause my heart to leap . .what makes my heart dance, or smile, as I like to say, what do I love, what are the gifts and how does God love me . . . when I dwell on these things when I list them one by one, I am a happier and freer person. I revel in the simple. I “dance” in the rain < oh how I desire to do this with absolute abandon, in the moment, doesn't that sound free? Yet how difficult it can be to carry the simple things we really want to do . .
When I witness others dancing I see a freedom that I want so much to ingest. I want to twirl, and spin and jump . . oh. and be okay with it, with me . .

Your words are so beautiful! I was just at Shelly Miller’s site and read her lovely post linked here…and even though I didn’t write from your prompt, yesterday the Lord prompted me to write one on dance. Hope you don’t mind me linking it, but I think He just confirmed my nudge yesterday through your five minute Friday theme :) I’m not a mom as I’d always hoped, but can see you right there in your words!

I’ve been sitting here reading through the FMF link ups while Sesame Street provides some background music. The letter of the day is “D” and Elmo just got finished singing a song about…wait for it….DANCING!!

beautiful! I remember this dance, and how I both loved and loathed it, sometimes simultaneously. Now, when my 11 year-old son, once my baby, dances with me in the dining room (as I am learning to let him lead) I can’t remember anything not to love about it.
Peace and good.

Layne
on June 29, 2012 at 11:02 am

I guess you have to have a website to post a 5 min Friday post. I don’t blog, so am I not allowed to participate? I tried to use my fb link but it wouldn’t work. I was looking forward to it since my little one was asleep.

If it doesn’t work in the link up above, pop over to The Gypsy Mama facebook page and share it there…would love to have you participate. I have tried to do most prompts since the beginning and I absolutely love this community! Please do not let having a blog or not stop you….!!

One day, word weaver, I will find that rhythm with my words like you do…until then…thank you for sharing yours with us to learn and to glean from….

Also…only the first 52 posts are showing up on your page so I cannot see mine to comment on the one in front of me {I know that is something so important to you for us to do!}…..but I will come back later to check again…

ahhh…this happened to me one other time too…and I am in Haiti now visiting my parents so who knows what the server connections here could be doing to the screens. Last time it worked out eventually…I will check again later….

And you are most welcome! ;-)

sunshine
on June 29, 2012 at 12:39 pm

Hi Lisa-Jo,
Thanks for another 5 minute friday…
I have a question…if we have our post ready to link over to this week’s prompt, and we are following you, do we press the, ‘click here to enter’ or the ‘subscriber’s…just click here?’
just wondering if we have to always put in our link address in the Linky tools or can we just paste our post link somewhere and by pass all the other stuff. Sorry, i’m rather confused…

Lisa-Jo
on June 29, 2012 at 12:51 pm

He sunshine – if you want your post to be part of the link up then you need to click “click here to enter” and put in the appropriate info. Otherwise you can just leave your link in the comments, but others readers might miss it there. Thanks for joining us!

i am amazed at how your words can truly bring it all back around… even 18 years later. and what i have learned in these 18 years is that the music is always changing… and there are always more stpes to learn! and each has it’s own unique and amazing beauty…

I Just wanted to Thank you for Giving us Five minutes to write and sharing your lovely family with us. I’am especially thrilled to have a place to share my Love God and Christ. You have no idea happy it makes me, in fact the prompt for this week say’s it. It makes want to…..

You got me with the Lego imprint on bare foot. That happened to me once! Now, my little Bob the Builders are more interested in laptops and iphones than lego blocks and tonka trucks. Enjoy your little ones, friend.

Thanks for this prompt. I’m in Louisiana for my nephew’s wedding. The nephew who was in his my matron-of-honor’s belly 22 years ago. The dance prompt will be a perfect tribute to the precious couple about to take the dance floor of marriage. :)

kathy johnston
on June 30, 2012 at 11:04 am

Love the post! Yes, this is a very special time . One of joy to have and hold.

Hi Lisa-Jo, I spent a lot of time trying to find the click here to enter button.. couldn’t see any of the linked bloggers either…. so here i am posting it here in the comments box.
DANCE

After missing a few FMF’s, due to getting ready for our India trip… I write my piece of the word here, from India… a few hours after the engagement ceremony of my sister in law. Here is my Five Minute Friday on a Saturday….

GO
In our church here in India, a couple before marriage is required to finish a few hours of counselling sessions with lessons and an exam. My sister in law picked up a very interesting point. God did not create an Eve, Hannah, or Esther (names doesn’t matter). He just created one Eve. Why didn’t He give Adam a choice to pick up a wife and a helper from a queue of girls? God knows that Eve was meant to be Adam’s wife and helper…. bone of my bones.. flesh of my flesh(Gen 2:23). That was a relief to my sister in law, that this person that she was going to marry is God’s chosen one for her and that her parents prayers were answered in showing only His one to them.

To follow God’s voice and to act upon it, we have to be that synchronized partner in following His every lead in this” life dance”… God’s journey for us here on this earth. We being “we”, and having the assumption that we can also come up with our own dance steps, using the “free will card”, end up stepping on God’s feet. Hurting Him by our choices and falling off the sequence of events God has planned for us. God being our Abba Father, holds onto us tightly, never letting us go, holding our feet on His. He picks up on those faulty steps and turns them into beautiful movements.

I enjoyed this prompt. And I love the idea. But no one has commented on mine. I thought that was part of the point. There are several people who have posted after mine…I will do it again, because it was fun to do, but I would appreciate if people would participate fully, or not at all. :(